I know this has been asked 1000 times, but yes, I have done my research and surprisingly am not a linux noob or anything like that, just have specific requirements.

I need,
Internet browser with flash, email, skype WITH webcam support.
Used on a 7 inch screen with an AMD LX800 500mhz cpu. (A wiped pepperpad3 to be exact) Hdd space shouldn't be an issue. Ram is at 256mb but I will probably change that to the GB.

I can do a bit of fiddling around to get it working but would like some idea where to start.

My current thoughts are ubuntu server and then add a cutdown gui on afterwards. Their netbook edition seems good in theory but is designed from the ground up to work on 1.6hz atoms. Not the 500mhz I will have to play with.

Many of the minimal window managers should suffice. I prefer IceWM and openbox. There are many others. Maybe play around with all of them and see which one you like best. Have you looked at CrunchBang?

01-18-2011

MASONTX

LXDE has always been one of my favorites, but if you will go to distrowatch.com and search under distribution categories for netbook distro's, you should find several distro's to try. Also, <Linux> - Google Search, is a good place to search for specific linux questions. You may be able to find a download site for your wiped OS.

SliTaz. More up to date than DSL, and lighter than DSL or Puppy. It works well on older hardware or brandnew hardware. Perfection.

02-23-2011

hazel

Here is an interesting thread from another forum. It suggests that people are too quick to suggest self-consciously small distros like DSL and Slitaz in response to this kind of question when in fact many mainstream distros are quite capable of running on old hardware provided you are careful about what you install - for example using a window manager to manage your desktop rather than the default choice of a big desktop environment.

02-23-2011

ford

It's also a matter of ease during the setup though. With a Debian net install, I can choose to go ahead and select only the pieces of Xorg that I want, I can install openbox, I can install wicd, and I can go about things that way. Piece by piece. On the other hand, I can just download SliTaz and install it, and be done with it. All the while, SliTaz scales well from older hardware all the way to current hardware. I can install a full modular Xorg rather than Xvesa. I can install OpenOffice instead of gOffice... but I don't really need to since it's functional from day one.

Essentially, what I am saying is that SliTaz provides the ease of use of a normal Desktop-Environment-laden distribution while using insanely light-weight components.